The following abbreviations and terms are herewith defined, at least some of which are referred to within the following description and drawings of the present disclosure.
3GPP 3rd-Generation Partnership Project
AAA Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting
AGCH Access Grant Channel
AS Application Server
ASIC Application Specific Integrated Circuit
ATI Additional TBF Information
BLER Block Error Rate
BSS Base Station Subsystem
CDF Charging Data Function
CGF Charging Gateway Function
CDMA Code Division Multiple Access
CN Core Network
DSP Digital Signal Processor
GGSN Gateway GPRS Support Node
GMSC Gateway MSC
GPRS General Packet Radio Service
GSM Global System for Mobile Communications
GW Gateway
HARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request
HPLMN Home Public Land Mobile Network
HSS Home Subscriber Server
IA Immediate Assignment
IE Information Element
IP Internet Protocol
IoT Internet of Things
IWF InterWorking Function
IWMSC InterWorking MSC
LLC Logical Link Control
LTE Long-Term Evolution
MAC Medium Access Control
M2M Machine-to-Machine
MME Mobile Management Entity
MS Mobile Station
MSC Mobile Switching Centre
MSID Mobile Station Identifier
MTC Machine-Type Communications
NAS Non-Access Stratum
PDP Packet Data Protocol
P-GW Packet-Gateway
PLMN Public Land Mobile Network
RACH Random Access Channel
RAN Radio Access Network
RLC Radio Link Control
RRC Radio Resource Control
SC Service Centre
SCS Services Capability Server
SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node
S-GW Serving Gateway
SM Session Management
SME Short Message Entity
SMS Short Message Service
SNDCP Sub Network Dependent Convergence Protocol
TBF Temporary Block Flow
TS Technical Specification
UDP User Datagram Protocol
UE User Equipment
VPLMN Visited Public Land Mobile Network
WCDMA Wideband Code Division Multiple Access
WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
Coverage Class: At any point in time a device belongs to a specific uplink/downlink coverage class which determines the total number of blind transmissions to be used when transmitting/receiving radio blocks. An uplink/downlink coverage class applicable at any point in time can differ between different logical channels. Upon initiating a system access a device determines the uplink/downlink coverage class applicable to the RACH/AGCH based on estimating the number of blind repetitions of a radio block needed by the BSS receiver/device receiver to experience a BLER (block error rate) of approximately 10%. The BSS determines the uplink/downlink coverage class to be used by a device on the device's assigned packet channel resources based on estimating the number of blind repetitions of a radio block needed to satisfy a target BLER and considering the number of HARQ retransmissions (of a radio block) that will, on average, result from using that target BLER.Internet of Things (IoT) devices: The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical objects or “things” embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and connectivity to enable objects to exchange data with the manufacturer, operator and/or other connected devices based on the infrastructure of the International Telecommunication Union's Global Standards Initiative. The Internet of Things allows objects to be sensed and controlled remotely across existing network infrastructure creating opportunities for more direct integration between the physical world and computer-based systems, and resulting in improved efficiency, accuracy and economic benefit. Each thing is uniquely identifiable through its embedded computing system but is able to interoperate within the existing Internet infrastructure. Experts estimate that the IoT will consist of almost 50 billion objects by 2020.
There will be a need for wireless communication systems to support Network Triggered Reporting, wherein cellular IoT devices (or any other type of wireless device) can periodically receive notifications (e.g., triggers) which indicate that the cellular IoT devices are to transmit certain information of interest (e.g., telemetry) to a processing node (e.g., a machine type communication (MTC) server, a services capability server (SCS)) reachable through the Internet Protocol (IP) network. When considering that a large portion of cellular IoT devices are expected to support a very simplified set of functions (e.g., only being able to report limited sets of telemetric information), it becomes apparent that delivering IP packets to such devices as the means for triggering the devices to transmit a report is unnecessarily demanding from both a signaling overhead and bandwidth requirements perspective.
For example, transmitting an IP packet to an IoT device to trigger the IoT device to transmit a report will involve the inclusion of the IP layer and, therefore, 40 octets of fixed overhead (i.e., for IPv6) from the IP layer alone. Factoring into this overhead the inclusion of optional IP header information and other layers (e.g., Radio Link Control (RLC)/Medium Access Control (MAC), Logical Link Control (LLC), Sub Network Dependent Convergence Protocol (SNDCP), User Datagram Protocol (UDP)) can push the total overhead up to a level approaching 100 octets, which is quite excessive considering that a few octets (or even less than 1 octet) of payload information (i.e., the trigger information) may be all that needs to be delivered to the application layer of the IoT device.
Accordingly, a more bandwidth and signaling efficient mechanism for triggering cellular IoT devices to transmit reports is desirable. Further, this is not a problem that is unique to IoT devices. A similar problem can be observed with other types of wireless devices (e.g., Machine-Type Communications (MTC) devices). This problem and other problems associated with the prior art are addressed in the present disclosure.